Pages

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

In addition to Zendalas Marie also gave us an extensive gallery of different ideas for future (beyond the course) tangling projects. I selected a couple to try now using more of the tangles Marie had given instructions for. Time & again I find the actual act of working on an example enables me to uncover not only information about products but my own responses to techniques or formats of artwork in general.

This tile provoked some thought whilst I worked on it for I found I felt somewhat constrained by the 'landscape' format. There's somehow a freedom & spontaneity in the traditional Zentangle black & white that I find lacking when trying to make a picture like this. I tentatively tried using a little Sansodor with my Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils but the Pigma Micron linework started to smear - however not as badly as I'd anticipated - another bit of product knowledge to file away.

Thursday, 25 October 2012

In the final week Marie introduced us to Zendalas created using different types of strings including several examples made using Genevieve Crabe's Mandala stencils. As I don't have any yet but still wanted to try drawing a Zendala myself I wondered if I could make something similar. What I managed to construct is a little crude & definitely not accurate in terms of angles but it enabled me to experience the thrill of actually drawing my own design.

I used a compass & protractor to draw myself a grid on a piece of paper & die-cut a circular shape from some plasticky translucent packing material. Using my grid I pierced holes (large enough to accomodate a pencil point) into the plastic. It's a little unwieldy so I ended up with some pencil indentations when transferring the marks to my tile but I still managed to draw what I considered a workable pattern.

tangles: Box Pleat, Crescent Moon, Frairum

In the next example I transferred the string for Erin'sZendala Dare #28 onto the outline of a tile drawn in my Moleskine Sketchbook & worked on some more new-to-me tangles.

Friday, 19 October 2012

I was pondering over my unsuccessful hunt for a stamp with a large open flower image when I remembered my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. I found that the largest flower is the perfect size for a Zentangle tile so I've die-cut myself a cardboard template to draw round. It's proved perfect for the rest of my colouring exercises.

As I said (in my previous post) colour introduces a very different aspect into tangling & it's certainly one that I wish to explore further. I'm quite drawn to the idea of monochrome tiles like my final one where shading is carried out using a coloured pencil & a dry paper stump - in fact this is also my tile for the current Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group'sMonotangle challenge.

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Black & white is the traditional format for a Zentangle tile & I certainly find it to be the format in which tangling can be carried out anywhere with a minimum of supplies. I also found that once colour is introduced the whole process becomes much more involved with the need to think about whether colours work with one another or not. There is also the added complication of whether various media are compatible with each oher - after a couple of tiles with black smudgy messes I discovered that the Letraset Fine Line Drawing Pen (Waterproof Non Fading Pigment Ink) bleeds when used in conjunction with the Tombow Blender Pen whereas the Sakura Pigma Micron (Archival Pigment Inkwaterproof & fade proof) does not providing one allows it a few minutes to dry.

The whole ethos of Zentangle is one of lessening stress & I certainly find that there is a terrific freedom in not having to consider colouring aspects. However, the delight I have had in colour ever since I can remember remains unchanged. Understanding different media & colour theory still fascinates me & I've been amazed by the variety of techniques incorporating colour with tangling that Marie introduced us to.

Monday, 15 October 2012

I have quite a few projects from the third week of the course when Marie introduced various ways of adding colour to tangles. Since there are too many to post at once I thought I’d post my final piece of
artwork for that week first. It was actually supposed to be a Zentangle Inspired scrapbook
page – I adapted the exercise somewhat & started by drawing & colouring the butterfly as my
focal image & then constructed the rest around it – much the same as if I’d used
a photograph for the focal image.

This has taken the best part of a week to draw, colour & assemble
with plenty of learning experiences along the way as I’m not a person who can
draw by instinct/naturally.

Prior to this course I’ve not used Tombow pens & I discovered as I
was initially trying to work on my favourite Winsor & Newton Cotman 190gsm Cold
Pressed/NOT Grain Fin watercolour paper that the Tombows refuse to blend out
smoothly when direct to paper watercolouring - a very visible hard line remains.
On an earlier exercise where I’d not been shaping elementsI’d used the more robust Daler-Rowney
Langton 300gsm Hot Pressed Extra Smooth watercolour paper without the hard
lines so I had to conclude that the different watercolour papers were having an impact upon the blendability.

Thethick hot pressed paper doesn’t really
respond very well to a ball tool for shaping but I eventually managed to shape my butterfly &
petals without creasing by gently rounding them over several sizes of glue
bottles & pencils.

angled view showing dimension of flower & butterfly

close-up showing detail & glittering of butterfly

close-up showing lettering, bee & caterpillar

The project was drawn by hand using Sakura Pigma Micron Pens 01 & 05
onto a 9¾ x 7 inches piece of the Langton hot pressed watercolour paper & watercoloured
with the Tombow markers using the direct to paper method. The butterfly’s body
has been glittered using Stickles glitter glue & shaped as above.

Tuesday, 2 October 2012

In my final tile for the second week I wanted to experiment a little with the Coil tangle & to try some of the other tangles that Marie taught us. She also introduced us to a grid based tangle of her own called 'Happy Dance' which I was particularly keen to try as I'm rather partial to the grid format.

In my previous post I used TanglePatterns String 002 & I wanted to use that again as part of my contribution to the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group's current challenge theme based upon the word "Favourite." I have a particular liking for taking something - in this case it's the string & the Coil tangle - & exploring different aspects of it. The type of shading technique I used for the Chemystery tangle (top right) is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine & my liking for grids also make this tile a good illustration of the "Favourite" theme.